Guilty plea taken in robbery

ADRIAN — He had robbery in mind after all, a former prison inmate said when he pleaded guilty to pulling a gun on a clerk at the CVS pharmacy in Adrian on April 20.

David Daniel Byard, 49, was arrested minutes after the reported hold-up attempt. A guilty plea he offered in October was rejected when he gave a Lenawee County circuit judge an explanation of wanting only to scare the clerk because he insulted someone who robbed the store two weeks earlier.

Byard told Judge Margaret M.S. Noe on Wednesday that he really did intend to commit an armed robbery by taking a toy gun to the store about 1 a.m. on April 20 and confronting a clerk. His plea to a charge of assault with intent to commit armed robbery was accepted.

He faces a maximum life prison term when he is sentenced on Jan. 10.

Byard has been in the Lenawee County Jail since April 20, when he was caught by a jail officer while running through nearby Trestle Park. The officer went outside to look for a robbery suspect who was reported to be running from the CVS store.

Adrian police also identified Byard as a suspect in an April 8 theft at the same store. A security video showed a masked man carrying what appeared to be a gun walking into the store late that night and walk behind a check-out counter that was not attended at the time. Store employees discovered the theft a short time later and called police after looking at the video.

When he first pleaded guilty in October, Byard told the court he was angry with a CVS clerk who he said he overheard talking about the April 8 theft.

“He said whoever did it was a coward,” Byard said. He also denied being the thief.

Byard served more than 20 years in prison for a 1988 armed robbery of employees at the Domino’s Pizza store in Adrian with a handgun. He was convicted in that case after a jury trial and sentenced to a 13- to 30-year prison term plus two years for possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was discharged from prison in October 2011.